Former Rep. Ron Paul says his son, Sen. Rand Paul, will “probably” launch a campaign for the White House in 2016.

“I think he probably will. I mean he’s been on TV hinting that he very well might,” the former Republican congressman from Texas said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” on Monday. “I think he is handling himself quite well.”

The senior Paul, who has waged presidential campaigns himself, said the time for fatherly advice has passed.

“Well, I think he’s going to make up his own mind. And I had my opportunity to give him advice when he was much younger,” Paul said. “He’s been a pretty independent person, which you would expect, and he’s very libertarian-like. And therefore he will make up his own mind.”

The freshman senator has been the subject of much speculation for the Republican presidential nominee in 2016, but has declined to answer definitively whether he will run to date and this week said his wife does not want him to run.

Meanwhile, Ron Paul, a frequent critic of the president, did praise President Barack Obama for his diplomatic work on Iran and expressed concern that Congress could get in his way.

“I think under the circumstances it’s a great breakthrough. And during the campaign you heard me say it very often, we ought to do more diplomacy and less shooting from the hip,” Paul said.

He continued: “I’m frightened that the Congress right now, even though I’m always upholding Congress to try do the right thing and curtail the presidential potential powers, I’m afraid Congress will come in and just block this by saying, ‘No, what we need are more sanctions to see how many more Iranian people we can kill, like we did in Iraq.’ … I hope the president is going to be successful on this. I’m cheering him on.”